Course Title: Management and Organizational Behavior

Course Code: MGT 7301

Assignment
on
Behavior Theories in the Workplace

Submitted By:
Moumon Das
ID: 23230341079
MBA (Professional)
Batch: 34
Section: A

Supervised By:
Farhana Yasmin
Assistant Professor
Department of Business Administration in Finance & Banking
Faculty of Business Studies (FBS)
 Behavior Theories in Workplace

Table of Contents

1. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory ..................................................................................... 3

2. ERG Theory of Motivation...................................................................................................... 5

3. Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory ................................................................................................ 7

4. Theory X and Theory Y ........................................................................................................... 7

5. McClelland’s Theory of Needs ................................................................................................ 9

6. Expectancy Theory .................................................................................................................11

7. Reinforcement Theory ........................................................................................................... 13

8. Goal-Setting Theory .............................................................................................................. 14

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 Behavior Theories in Workplace

Behavioral theories in the workplace are frameworks that seek to understand and explain how
individuals and groups behave within organizational settings. These theories provide insights
into the factors that influence employee motivation, satisfaction, and performance. Here are brief
descriptions of some key behavior theories in the workplace:

1. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory

The hierarchy was originally conceived by American psychologist Abraham Maslow in 1943.
Maslow had a humanistic approach to psychology, and his work put focus on the whole person
instead of individual psychological symptoms. His hierarchy of needs describes several levels of
the human experience, with examples of how each need can be fulfilled. The corresponding
theory poses each level must be sufficiently met before someone is prepared to tackle the next
level.

“Human needs arrange themselves in hierarchies of pre-potency,” Maslow wrote in the 1943
paper “A Theory of Human Needs,” which first described the model. “That is to say, the
appearance of one need usually rests on the prior satisfaction of another, more pre-potent need.
Man is a perpetually wanting animal. Also, no need or drive can be treated as if it were isolated
or discrete; every drive is related to the state of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of other drives.”

 Level 1: Physiological Needs

According to Maslow, the most essential human needs are the ones that keep us alive, like food,
water, shelter and air. Without this basic level of survival, a person can’t be expected to do much
in the way of higher thinking or achievement.

“A person who is lacking food, safety, love, and esteem would most probably hunger for food
more strongly than for anything else,” Maslow explained in his paper. Everything else, he
posited, has to come after.

 Level 2: Safety needs

With basic needs fulfilled, the next level of needs moves to safety. These are things like financial
security, freedom from fear, stable health and anything that can lend our day-to-day lives a level
of predictability and security.

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Maslow argued that it’s this level of safety-seeking that leads humans to prize systems that bring
order to their existence, perhaps in the form of law or religion. Some challenges to this level, he
suggested, could be “wild animals, extremes of temperature, criminals, assault and murder, (and)
tyranny.”

 Level 3: Needs of belonging

Once basic survival and a modicum of security are established, human needs change a little bit.
The third level of the hierarchy includes concepts like friendship, community, love, shared
experiences and anything that gives humans a sense of belonging among themselves.

In this model, Maslow assumed, with the fulfillment of one level, humans will generally develop
a longing to fulfill the next.

“Now the person will feel keenly, as never before, the absence of friends, or a sweetheart, or a
wife, or children,” Maslow wrote. “He will hunger for affectionate relations with people in
general, namely, for a place in his group, and he will strive with great intensity to achieve this
goal. He will want to attain such a place more than anything else in the world and may even
forget that once, when he was hungry, he sneered at love.”

 Level 4: Esteem needs

The top of Maslow’s Hierarchy - the ultimate condition of human opportunity - has to do with
self-actualization. But first, humans must fulfill needs of esteem. Esteem, in this sense, refers to a
person’s sense of self and their sense of self in relation to others. This level includes things like
dignity, personal achievement and maybe even a sense of prestige in a certain area.

“Satisfaction of the self-esteem need leads to feelings of self-confidence, worth, strength,

capability and adequacy of being useful and necessary in the world,” Maslow wrote.

 Level 5: Self-actualization needs

Finally, once a person has all they need to survive, function, and understand their position in the
world and their community, they can enter the final portion of the hierarchy. Self-actualization
can mean many things, but many of the examples center around a desire to explore, create or
expand ones skills. Concepts like beauty, aesthetics and discovery translate into real-world
examples like art, learning a new language, refining one’s talents and becoming the best one can

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be. “A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately
happy,” Maslow wrote. “What a man can be, he must be. This needs we may call self-
actualization.” (Despite the pronouns, one assumes the process of self-actualization is also
applicable to humans who are not men.)

 Appearance and Variations

The hierarchy of needs is traditionally represented as a pyramid. Over time, other thinkers have
tweaked and re-visualized Maslow’s hierarchy in different ways; expounding on or splitting the
levels, or proposing models where needs are differently ordered. The general idea remains the
same, however: Humans have different sets of needs that rely upon each other, and one must
have basic needs fulfilled before they can reach their potential.

Figure: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

2. ERG Theory of Motivation

To bring Maslow’s need hierarchy theory of motivation in synchronization with empirical

research, Clayton Alderfer redefined it in his own terms. His rework is called as ERG theory of
motivation.

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 Behavior Theories in Workplace

He recategorized Maslow’s hierarchy of needs into three simpler and broader classes of needs:

 Existence needs: These include need for basic material necessities. In short, it includes an
individual’s physiological and physical safety needs.
 Relatedness needs: These include the aspiration individuals have for maintaining
significant interpersonal relationships (be it with family, peers or superiors), getting
public fame and recognition. Maslow’s social needs and external component of esteem
needs fall under this class of need.
 Growth needs- These include need for self-development and personal growth and
advancement. Maslow’s self-actualization needs and intrinsic component of esteem needs
fall under this category of need.

 Difference between Maslow Need Hierarchy Theory and Alderfer’s ERG Theory

 ERG Theory states that at a given point of time, more than one need may be operational.
 ERG Theory also shows that if the fulfillment of a higher-level need is subdued, there is
an increase in desire for satisfying a lower-level need.
 According to Maslow, an individual remains at a particular need level until that need is
satisfied. While according to ERG theory, if a higher-level need aggravates, an individual
may revert to increase the satisfaction of a lower-level need. This is called frustration-
regression aspect of ERG theory. For instance- when growth need aggravates, then an
individual might be motivated to accomplish the relatedness need and if there are issues
in accomplishing relatedness needs, then he might be motivated by the existence needs.
Thus, frustration/aggravation can result in regression to a lower-level need.
 While Maslow’s need hierarchy theory is rigid as it assumes that the needs follow a
specific and orderly hierarchy and unless a lower-level need is satisfied, an individual
cannot proceed to the higher-level need; ERG Theory of motivation is very flexible as he
perceived the needs as a range/variety rather than perceiving them as a hierarchy.
According to Alderfer, an individual can work on growth needs even if his existence or
relatedness needs remain unsatisfied. Thus, he gives explanation to the issue of “starving
artist” who can struggle for growth even if he is hungry.

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 Implications of the ERG Theory

Managers must understand that an employee has various needs that must be satisfied at the same
time. According to the ERG theory, if the manager concentrates solely on one need at a time, this
will not effectively motivate the employee. Also, the frustration-regression aspect of ERG
Theory has an added effect on workplace motivation. For instance- if an employee is not
provided with growth and advancement opportunities in an organization, he might revert to the
relatedness need such as socializing needs and to meet those socializing needs, if the
environment or circumstances do not permit, he might revert to the need for money to fulfill
those socializing needs. The sooner the manager realizes and discovers this, the more immediate
steps they will take to fulfill those needs which are frustrated until such time that the employee
can again pursue growth.

3. Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory

The two-factor motivation theory, otherwise known as Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory or

dual-factor theory, argues that there are separate sets of mutually exclusive factors in the
workplace that either cause job satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Herzberg, 1966; 1982; 1991;
Herzberg, Mausner, & Snyderman, 1959). Generally, these factors encouraging job satisfaction
relate to self-growth and self-actualization.

The two-factor motivation theory has become one of the most commonly used theoretical
frameworks in job satisfaction research (Dion, 2006).

To Herzberg, motivators ensured job satisfaction, while a lack of hygiene factors spawned job
dissatisfaction.

4. Theory X and Theory Y

In 1960, Douglas McGregor formulated Theory X and Theory Y suggesting two aspects of
human behavior at work, or in other words, two different views of individuals (employees):

One of which is negative, called as Theory X and

the other is positive, so called as Theory Y.

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According to McGregor, the perception of managers on the nature of individuals is based on

various assumptions.

 Assumptions of Theory X
 An average employee intrinsically does not like work and tries to escape it whenever
possible.
 Since the employee does not want to work, he must be persuaded, compelled, or warned
with punishment so as to achieve organizational goals. A close supervision is required on
part of managers. The managers adopt a more dictatorial style.
 Many employees rank job security on top, and they have little or no aspiration/ ambition.
 Employees generally dislike responsibilities.
 Employees resist change.
 An average employee needs formal direction.

 Assumptions of Theory Y

 Employees can perceive their job as relaxing and normal. They exercise their physical
and mental efforts in an inherent manner in their jobs.
 Employees may not require only threat, external control and coercion to work, but they
can use self-direction and self-control if they are dedicated and sincere to achieve the
organizational objectives.
 If the job is rewarding and satisfying, then it will result in employees’ loyalty and
commitment to organization. An average employee can learn to admit and recognize the
responsibility. In fact, he can even learn to obtain responsibility.
 The employees have skills and capabilities. Their logical capabilities should be fully
utilized. In other words, the creativity, resourcefulness and innovative potentiality of the
employees can be utilized to solve organizational problems.

Thus, we can say that Theory X presents a pessimistic view of employees’ nature and behavior at
work, while Theory Y presents an optimistic view of the employees’ nature and behavior at
work.

If we correlate it with Maslow’s theory, we can say that Theory X is based on the assumption that
the employees emphasize on the physiological needs and the safety needs; while Theory X is

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based on the assumption that the social needs, esteem needs and the self-actualization needs
dominate the employees.

McGregor views Theory Y to be more valid and reasonable than Theory X. Thus, he encouraged
cordial team relations, responsible and stimulating jobs, and participation of all in decision-
making process.

 Implications of Theory X and Theory Y

 Quite a few organizations use Theory X today. Theory X encourages use of tight control
and supervision. It implies that employees are reluctant to organizational changes. Thus,
it does not encourage innovation.
 Many organizations are using Theory Y techniques. Theory Y implies that the managers
should create and encourage a work environment which provides opportunities to
employees to take initiative and self-direction. Employees should be given opportunities
to contribute to organizational well-being. Theory Y encourages decentralization of
authority, teamwork and participative decision making in an organization. Theory Y
searches and discovers the ways in which an employee can make significant contributions
in an organization. It harmonizes and matches employees’ needs and aspirations with
organizational needs and aspirations.

5. McClelland’s Theory of Needs

David McClelland and his associates proposed McClelland’s theory of Needs/Achievement

Motivation Theory. This theory states that human behavior is affected by three needs:

i. Need for Power

ii. Need for Achievement, and
iii. Need for Affiliation

i. Need for Power

Need for power is the desire to influence other individual’s behavior as per your wish. In other
words, it is the desire to have control over others and to be influential. Such individuals try to get
satisfaction in performing things better. High achievement is directly related to high
performance. The individuals with high achievement needs are highly motivated by competing

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and challenging work. They look for promotional opportunities in job. They have a strong urge
for feedback on their achievement. Such individuals try to get satisfaction in performing things
better. High achievement is directly related to high performance. Individuals who are better and
above average performers are highly motivated. They assume responsibility for solving the
problems at work. McClelland called such individuals as gamblers as they set challenging targets
for themselves and they take deliberate risk to achieve those set targets. Such individuals look for
innovative ways of performing job. They perceive achievement of goals as a reward, and value it
more than a financial reward.

ii. Need for Achievement

Need for achievement is the urge to excel, to accomplish in relation to a set of standards, to
struggle to achieve success. The individuals with high achievement needs are highly motivated
by competing and challenging work. They look for promotional opportunities in job. They have a
strong urge for feedback on their achievement. The individuals who are motivated by power have
a strong urge to be influential and controlling. They want that their views and ideas should
dominate and thus, they want to lead. Such individuals are motivated by the need for reputation
and self-esteem. Individuals with greater power and authority will perform better than those
possessing less power. Generally, managers with high need for power turn out to be more
efficient and successful managers. They are more determined and loyal to the organization they
work for. Need for power should not always be taken negatively. It can be viewed as the need to
have a positive effect on the organization and to support the organization in achieving its goals.

iii. Need for Affiliation

Need for affiliation is a need for open and sociable interpersonal relationships. In other words, it
is a desire for relationship based on co-operation and mutual understanding. Individuals who are
better and above average performers are highly motivated. They assume responsibility for
solving the problems at work. McClelland called such individuals as gamblers as they set
challenging targets for themselves and they take deliberate risk to achieve those set targets. The
individuals who are motivated by affiliation have an urge for a friendly and supportive
environment. Such individuals are effective performers in a team. These people want to be liked
by others. The manager’s ability to make decisions is hampered if they have a high affiliation
need as they prefer to be accepted and liked by others, and this weakens their objectivity.

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Individuals having high affiliation needs prefer working in an environment providing greater
personal interaction. Such people have a need to be on the good books of all. They generally
cannot be good leaders.

6. Expectancy Theory

The expectancy theory was proposed by Victor Vroom of Yale School of Management in 1964.
Vroom stresses and focuses on outcomes, and not on needs unlike Maslow and Herzberg. The
theory states that the intensity of a tendency to perform in a particular manner is dependent on
the intensity of an expectation that the performance will be followed by a definite outcome and
on the appeal of the outcome to the individual.

The Expectancy theory states that employee’s motivation is an outcome of:

i. How much an individual wants a reward (Valence). In short, Valence is the significance
associated by an individual about the expected outcome. It is an expected and not the actual
satisfaction that an employee expects to receive after achieving the goals.
ii. The assessment that the likelihood that the effort will lead to expected performance
(Expectancy). Expectancy is the faith that better efforts will result in better performance.
Expectancy is influenced by factors such as possession of appropriate skills for performing
the job, availability of right resources, availability of crucial information and getting the
required support for completing the job.
iii. The belief that the performance will lead to reward (Instrumentality). Instrumentality is the
faith that if you perform well, then a valid outcome will be there. Instrumentality is affected
by factors such as believe in the people who decide who receives what outcome, the
simplicity of the process deciding who gets what outcome, and clarity of relationship
between performance and outcomes.

Thus, the expectancy theory concentrates on the following three relationships:

 Effort-performance relationship: What is the likelihood that the individual’s effort be

recognized in his performance appraisal?
 Performance-reward relationship: It talks about the extent to which the employee believes
that getting a good performance appraisal leads to organizational rewards.

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 Rewards-personal goals relationship: It is all about the attractiveness or appeal of the

potential reward to the individual.

Vroom was of view that employees consciously decide whether to perform or not at the job. This
decision solely depended on the employee’s motivation level which in turn depends on three
factors of expectancy, valence and instrumentality.

 Advantages of the Expectancy Theory

 It is based on self-interest individual who want to achieve maximum satisfaction and who
wants to minimize dissatisfaction.
 This theory stresses upon the expectations and perception; what is real and actual is
immaterial.
 It emphasizes on rewards or pay-offs.
 It focuses on psychological extravagance where final objective of individual is to attain
maximum pleasure and least pain.
 Limitations of the Expectancy Theory

 The expectancy theory seems to be idealistic because quite a few individuals perceive
high degree correlation between performance and rewards.
 The application of this theory is limited as reward is not directly correlated with
performance in many organizations. It is related to other parameters also such as position,
effort, responsibility, education, etc.
 Implications of the Expectancy Theory

 The managers can correlate the preferred outcomes to the aimed performance levels.
 The managers must ensure that the employees can achieve the aimed performance levels.
 The deserving employees must be rewarded for their exceptional performance.
 The reward system must be fair and just in an organization.
 Organizations must design interesting, dynamic and challenging jobs.
 The employee’s motivation level should be continually assessed through various
techniques such as questionnaire, personal interviews, etc.

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7. Reinforcement Theory

Reinforcement theory of motivation was proposed by BF Skinner and his associates. It states that
individual’s behavior is a function of its consequences. It is based on “law of effect”, i.e.,
individual’s behavior with positive consequences tends to be repeated, but individual’s behavior
with negative consequences tends not to be repeated. Reinforcement theory of motivation
overlooks the internal state of individual, i.e., the inner feelings and drives of individuals are
ignored by Skinner. This theory focuses totally on what happens to an individual when he takes
some action.

Thus, according to Skinner, the external environment of the organization must be designed
effectively and positively so as to motivate the employee. This theory is a strong tool for
analyzing controlling mechanism for individual’s behavior. However, it does not focus on the
causes of individual’s behavior.

The managers use the following methods for controlling the behavior of the employees:

 Positive Reinforcement: This implies giving a positive response when an individual shows
positive and required behavior. For example - Immediately praising an employee for
coming early for job. This will increase probability of outstanding behavior occurring
again. Reward is a positive reinforce, but not necessarily. If and only if the employees’
behavior improves, reward can be said to be a positive reinforcer. Positive reinforcement
stimulates occurrence of a behavior. It must be noted that more spontaneous is the giving of
reward, the greater reinforcement value it has.
 Negative Reinforcement: This implies rewarding an employee by removing negative /
undesirable consequences. Both positive and negative reinforcement can be used for
increasing desirable/required behavior.
 Punishment: It implies removing positive consequences so as to lower the probability of
repeating undesirable behavior in future. In other words, punishment means applying
undesirable consequence for showing undesirable behavior. For instance- Suspending an
employee for breaking the organizational rules. Punishment can be equalized by positive
reinforcement from alternative source.
 Extinction: It implies absence of reinforcements. In other words, extinction implies
lowering the probability of undesired behavior by removing reward for that kind of

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behavior. For instance- if an employee no longer receives praise and admiration for his
good work, he may feel that his behavior is generating no fruitful consequence. Extinction
may unintentionally lower desirable behavior.

 Implications of Reinforcement Theory

Reinforcement theory explains in detail how an individual learns behavior. Managers who are
making attempt to motivate the employees must ensure that they do not reward all employees
simultaneously. They must tell the employees what they are not doing correct. They must tell the
employees how they can achieve positive reinforcement.

8. Goal-Setting Theory

In 1960’s, Edwin Locke put forward the Goal-setting theory of motivation. This theory states that
goal setting is essentially linked to task performance. It states that specific and challenging goals
along with appropriate feedback contribute to higher and better task performance. In simple
words, goals indicate and give direction to an employee about what needs to be done and how
much efforts are required to be put in.
The important features of goal-setting theory are as follows:

 The willingness to work towards attainment of goal is main source of job motivation.
Clear, particular and difficult goals are greater motivating factors than easy, general and
vague goals.
 Specific and clear goals lead to greater output and better performance. Unambiguous,
measurable and clear goals accompanied by a deadline for completion avoids
misunderstanding.
 Goals should be realistic and challenging. This gives an individual a feeling of pride and
triumph when he attains them, and sets him up for attainment of next goal.
 The more challenging the goal, the greater is the reward generally and the more is the
passion for achieving it.
 Better and appropriate feedback of results directs the employee behavior and contributes
to higher performance than absence of feedback.

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 Feedback is a means of gaining reputation, making clarifications and regulating goal

difficulties. It helps employees to work with more involvement and leads to greater job
satisfaction.
 Employees’ participation in goal is not always desirable.
 Participation of setting goal, however, makes goal more acceptable

Goal setting theory has certain eventualities such as:

a. Self-Efficiency: Self-efficiency is the individual’s self-confidence and faith that he has

potential of performing the task. Higher the level of self-efficiency, greater will be the
efforts put in by the individual when they face challenging tasks. While, lower the level of
self-efficiency, less will be the efforts put in by the individual or he might even quit while
meeting challenges.
b. Goal Commitment: Goal setting theory assumes that the individual is committed to the
goal and will not leave the goal. The goal commitment is dependent on the following
factors:
i. Goals are made open, known and broadcasted.
ii. Goals should be set-self by individual rather than designated.
iii. Individual’s set goals should be consistent with the organizational goals and vision.

 Advantages of Goal Setting Theory

 Goal setting theory is a technique used to raise incentives for employees to complete work
quickly and effectively.
 Goal setting leads to better performance by increasing motivation and efforts, but also
through increasing and improving the feedback quality.

 Limitations of Goal Setting Theory

 At times, the organizational goals are in conflict with the managerial goals. Goal conflict
has a detrimental effect on the performance if it motivates incompatible action drift.
 Very difficult and complex goals stimulate riskier behavior.
 If the employee lacks skills and competencies to perform actions essential for goal, then the
goal-setting can fail and lead to undermining of performance.
 There is no evidence to prove that goal-setting improves job satisfaction.

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